Flipkart, Snapdeal, others to decrease campus hiring this placement season

ampus hiring by large e-commerce companies at top B-schools is likely to see a steep fall this placement season, according to early estimates by sources from more than half-a-dozen such institutes. While Flipkart and Snapdeal had together hired close to 400 graduates from India’s top B-schools during placements last year, the two are likely to hire only a small fraction of that number this year.

Leading institutes such as SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, MDI Gurgaon, IIFT and IMI Delhi that have already completed placements, have seen a 40-75% drop in overall offers from e-commerce companies/startups during final placements.

The top three IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata are also bracing themselves for muted hiring from large e-commerce firms, according to a placement source at one of these institutes. Final placements are yet to begin at these institutes, but many early indications point to a dip. At IIM-Calcutta, for example, a top e-commerce recruiter is not even coming for final placements this year. At IIM-Kozhikode, where placements finished last weekend, offers from the big e-commerce companies have fallen 33.3%.

XLRI, which also starts placements in February, says they are anticipating e-commerce numbers to be lower. The numbers are telling. At SPJIMR, six e-commerce companies made only 14 offers compared to 54 offers from 5 companies in 2015. As a result of this near-75% drop in e-commerce offers, only 6% of the batch at the Mumbai-based institute was placed in such companies compared with 23% last year.

At MDI Gurgaon, only 19 offers have come in from 13 participating companies compared with 47 offers from six companies in 2015. Similar stories are playing out at other campuses. At IIFT, e-commerce companies hired only 11% of the batch, compared with 18% last year. IMI, Delhi also saw a steep fall.

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